I’m a sucker for a good book and despite (or maybe just to spite) my
tendency to over commit I agreed to read it and write an honest review.Bit of a disclaimer here I received an ARC of the book in exchange
for this review which is a common practice and in no way alters how or in what manner
I would review this book.

Blade of the Destroyer is one of the most
exciting books I have read in a long while. Andy Peloquin draws you in with
an enticing world building and a character that you should dislike. Not only did I
come to like the main character known only as the Hunter, but I rooted for him
and for his violent acts of revenge.

Let there be no mistake this book is grimdark. Hands and heads fly
from their owners as blood and gore paint rooms a myriad of colors and
textures.

But even if you are not a fan of violence this
book is still a good read. Peloquin crafts a superb anti-hero that could exist
in any comic book or modern day movie and successfully implants this character
into a world full of history . The Hunter is complex with motivations and
emotions you rarely see in a character of this type.

The digital version of this book is quite
affordable, but I would recommend going out and spending the money on the
pricier print version so you can read without worrying about your device dying
right when you get to the exciting part.

Bane of my ever loving existence to have my
reader’s battery die just as the Hunter… See how annoying that is.

The climax is stressful in a good way, as you follow the
Hunter and feel the need to take a breath but refuse to put the book down for a
bizarre fear that you will somehow miss out on what is going on. This book
exhausted me and I cannot wait for book 2. You hear that Andy? You better be
working on that shit right now.

There is only one thing that bothered me, and it is so minor
I refuse to say exactly what it was because it may not bother others, I only bring
it up to put out that no book is 100% perfect. This book comes pretty damn
close.

An action packed and yet still a complex plot as well as a
mystery that both you and the Hunter strive to solve. And finally an ending that you realize you
should have seen coming all along.

This book gets my full endorsement.Go out and buy it now. Support this talented
author, at the very least follow him in some manner.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

I have self published my first
work. A simple short story and I do not expect it to do well. Well at least not
for some time. I am using it as a way to
test the waters. I have Dragon Chess up
on Amazon. For now it is
available for free on Kindle Unlimited but I doubt I will do Kindle Unlimited
again.

I refuse to give anything away for
free. I feel it devalues the work I have done. That does not mean I won’t make
it cheap, but if a person at least pays ninety nine cents then they may be more
likely to read it. As opposed to downloading it for free and forgetting hey
have it, then it disappears form their kindle.

I have
said before that I have nothing against traditional publishing, and that I
would seek out that method if I didn’t suffer from numerous healthproblems that almost
guarantee an end to my life much earlier than I would like. No one is guaranteed to live an extended
period of time, and yes you could get hit by a bus tomorrow and then lights
out, but in all honesty you can expect that the average person will live a nice
long life. I on the other hand get blood draws every two weeks to make sure
that my body is not once again in the process of killing me through rapid and
random cell growth and devouring of my bones.

That being my current reality means that I don’t feel I can
wait the months long turnaround times and the constant rejection.

I do believe that rejection is a good thing for a writer. It
can make a writer reevaluate what they wrote and strive to become better
writers. Look
at how many times great writers have been rejected. I will have to forgo that experience, and
deal with the constant feeling of not being a legitimate writer. That is my
personal hang up.

In some ways self publishing is harder than traditional.
Both have to deal with doing massive amounts of marketing and promotion, but
the self published author has to look into where and how to sell the book or
short story.

That takes time, just as the marketing takes time, but at
least I know what is happening with my story as opposed to having it sit in
some sort of editorial limbo while an overworked staff tries to read s its way
through a massive slush pile.

That is my newest change in my attempt at a professional
life. If I even make a few sales of everything I plan on publishing (I have a
list of over fifteen hundred stories, some just as ideas others as started) the
I think I will be able to consider that a success. I will have reached someone.
And that is really what I want. To reach someone, to share this idea I have in
my head and managed to put down in paper.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

There is something innately creepy about a ventriloquist’s
dummy. This tiny figure carved of wood then painted and dressed to resemble a
human. It is not the fact that it looks a person. There are many inanimate things
that look are designed to resemble humans. I’m sure the first thing that come
to my mind are the bronze and marble statues by the Ancient Greeks and Romans
or even more current creations .

What disturbs me the
most about these type of dummies is how they go from fully animated to
lifeless. While you do need someone to bring the dummy to life, it is that we
don’t really see the hand going in the back of it. SO from my perspective it
looks like this creature is sitting on the performer’s lap. Once the performer has left the dummy remains
the same. Its dull eyes staring off into the distance. I almost expect it to
move. And if it were to move I would do what the kid from Chucky should have
done and pull that damn thing apart at the seams.

This aversion is not entirely my fault. My dislike is influenced by exposure to
puppets and dolls coming to life at a young age and I am not referring to Teddy
Ruxpin. Though if you pull off his fur and play his
tape recorder as the batteries die he is a nightmarish nightmare (and sometimes you don’t
even need to do that).

No, I am thinking of at least two televisions series, a
movie, and a book. My first encounter with
the disturbing nature of dolls would be Poltergeist. Not
that piece of shit and unnecessary remake, but the original. I watched it
around the same time my younger brother was born so I was about eight.

There
are many movies an eight year should never see, and that one is right up there.
I remember it making me nervous around this clown thing he had, that is how
messed up in the head that movie made me.
The two television series were Are You Afraid of the Dark
and Goosebumps. Both
felt it necessary to have episodes about those soul stealing demon spawn, and
as a result I am wary. What the book is should
be apparent, but for those who did not realize it Goosebumps was a series of books before it was a television series.

As an adult I figured out that those are based on old
episodes of the Twilight
Zone, and even that may be based on something even older.

And I refuse to even acknowledge the new movie that is
supposed to come out with Jack Black.

I wouldn’t call my dislike a phobia, or even a fear. It is
in the same vein of when you pass a cemetery and know that zombies do not
exist, but I’ll be damned that at least half the population of this country has
not had the fleeting thought of what they would do if zombies rose from the
grave.

That is me and dummies. I know they are not and could never
hurt me. But should one suddenly gain life then I am more than ready to crush
that thing into so much sawdust. Or plastic
dust. I don’t even know if they are still made out of wood and I don’t really
care as long as I don’t have to share a room with one.

About Me

Getting older means having survived another year on a planet that is trying to kill us, in a solar system that is a shooting gallery within a galaxy that has a black hole in the center in a universe that isn't even aware of our existence.